For my part, I’ve always stayed out of politics. When I was sent a Beta invite to test out Brigade, an app that encourages users to voice their opinions on a variety of social and political issues, I wasn't sure that I'd even be able to follow whatever it was people were talking about. Fortunately, it's pretty basic, and actually very educational. Users create a profile, then sort through a variety of local and national issues, weighing in on trending topics of interest by clicking "agree" or "disagree." Once your "vote" is cast, you automatically find out how other users have voted on issues like pot legalization, suicide prevention, data privacy, even the airline industry.

Engagement has been pretty high, which its creators take to be a good sign.

While many traditional voters are content to quietly punch ballots behind a curtain, our "sharing" generation seems eager to find out where their friends and family members stand, even if it the results aren't what they're expecting.

Brigade is the brainchild of President James Windon, CEO Matt Mahan, and Parker, who has openly asserted that
Facebook just isn't the right place for people to "express their civic identity."

He believes that a political social network with the types of tools Brigade will offer—and $9.5 million dollar funding—could even have a strong impact on the 2016 election.

Beyond just scrolling through an app full of “agree” or “disagree” options, Brigade has big plans to take all of this opinion-sharing a step further by giving people the tools they need to get organized beyond picket-signs and petition-signing, and to help them connect directly with the elected officials in their district.

If that pans out, we could be looking, potentially, at a large-scale social network that will become as active as Facebook, one that gives people the chance to have a real impact on the social issues they care about.

Co-founder Matt Mahan proposes the following scenario: if fifty people agree that there should be a bike lane in their neighborhood, Brigade could help those people identify each other, band together, and make their wishes known to their local city council or relevant government department.

As a form of quality control, each of those people would have already “verified” their identity through an extensive authentication process, showing the "targets" of these citizens' action that they're registered voters in that community, which gives their collective voice more meaning.

The Brigade team believes that the ability to "shape" accountability is a missing piece of the social change puzzle, especially where policymakers are concerned.

“The noise-signal problem facing elected officials is at an all-time high, which means policymakers are unable to listen, and constituents don't feel heard,” said Windon.

Indeed, the average American is represented by 40 elected officials—but how many can you actually name? There are half a million-elected officials in the U.S. whose job it is to make decisions on our behalf. Most of us don’t know who those candidates are or where they stand—and many people feel like it doesn’t even matter.

Brigade’s solution: seamlessly connect all the relevant stakeholders by giving users the opportunity to find out who represents them and what they stand for, giving elected officials, campaigns and advocacy groups the opportunity to find new supporters.

That could involve potentially inviting officials to advertise on the app.